B&N Workers on Upper West Side Vote to Join RWDSU
Workers at the Barnes & Noble 82nd Street store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan have voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), with 85% of eligible workers voting in favor of joining. Workers at the store had filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on February 20.
The store is the third B&N location to unionize in New York City in the past year, and the sixth location nationwide to vote to join unionize under RWDSU or another union—in Manhattan, at the chain’s flagship Union Square location, and Brooklyn, at the Park Slope neighborhood location.; Hadley, Mass.; San Jose, Calif.; and Bloomington, Ill. There is also one unionized B&N College Booksellers, at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. That store is operated by Barnes & Noble Education, a public company that is not affiliated with B&N. Bargaining continues at all of these locations, but no contracts have yet been ratified.
This article has been updated for clarity.